We dodged the bullet again

Submitted by Shawn Crowe on Wed, 03/07/2012 - 3:49pm

It appears that my thoughts about spring are taking shape. Already, two tornado outbreaks have pummeled Kentucky at the very beginning of meteorological spring (March 1) and we've got 12 weeks of the season to go. If you recall, last year we had a scare in Lawrenceburg as a severe thunderstorm produced a funnel cloud directly over the city. This funnel ended up becoming a tornado in Versailles and did some damage to structures near the Kmart in that city. It was rated EF-0 in Versailles. Judging from the pictures I've seen, there were a couple of funnel clouds directly over Lawrenceburg again on Friday, which gave us yet another scare. We have been very fortunate so far. I don't think this is the last taste of severe weather we'll see this spring, however. In fact, we are probably just getting warmed up. The overall pattern across North America is taking on the look of one that could wreak havoc in the coming weeks.

This brings me to another point. Our EM Director was quoted in this week's The Anderson News as saying that three tornadoes actually were seen over Anderson County, and one of them would have been an EF-3 if it had dropped. I want to clarify something here. By definition, if it is not touching the ground, it is not a tornado. There were zero tornadoes in Anderson County so far this year. We did have hail that met severe criteria by National Weather Service definition, but there were no tornadoes. It is important for our people to be educated so that in life and death situations we can relay information properly. Unfortunately, one of the ways the NWS educates communities is through weather spotter training classes that it traditionally offers in the spring, and this year they are drastically cutting back this program due to budget constraints. Therefore, it is unlikely that Anderson County will get a class hosted here this year. However, there will be a few classes offered and I recommend that people attend one of the classes when the schedule is posted to the NWS Louisville website.

If you want to see a list of where tornadoes actually did occur on Friday, visit this page: www.weather.gov/louisville. Then click on the "March 2 tornado outbreak" link at the top of the page.